Johnston 
Did  the  Phoenicians  Discover  America? 


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SPECIAL   BULLETIN 


A  PAPER  BY 
THOMAS  CRAWFORD  JOHNSTON,  ESQ. 

"DID  THE  PHCENICIANS  DISCOVER  AHERICA?" 

EMBRACING 

The  Origin  of  the  Aztecs,  with  some  Further  Light  on  Phoenician  Civilization  and 

Colonization. 

1  he  Origin  of  the  Mariners'  Compass. 
The  Original  Discovery  of  America. 

ILLUSTRATED 


Appearing  in  the  "Californian  Illustrated  Magazine," 
November  and  December,  i8g2 


Copyright,  1802,  by  Thomas  Crawford  Johnston 


S.    F.    PRINTING   CO.,    411    MARKET 


VIRES    ACQUIRIT    EUNOO 


Geographical  Society  of  California 

Incorporated   nth  December,   1891 

BUILDING 


PRESIDENT 

IJAVID  STARR  JORDAN.  M.  D..  LL.  D.,  PH.  D. 

(President  of  t!ie  Leland  Si;intcird  Jr.   University) 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 

COLONEL  JOHN  O'BYRNH 

DIRECTORS 

GEO.  W.  DAVIS.  M.  D.  HENRY  F.  EMERIC 

\\.\\.   HAM.  HALL,  C.  E.  PETER  MACEWEN 

GEORGE  A.  MOORE  EDGAR  D.  PEIXOTTO 

HON.  W.   H.  PRATT.  U.  S.  Surveyor  General 

TREASURER 

R.  H   McDONALD.  JR.,  Vice-President  of  the  Pacific  Bank 

SECRETARY 

J.  STUDDY   LEIGH.  F.   R.  G.  S. 

BANKERS 

THE    PACIFIC    BANK 


THOMAS    CRAWFORD   JOHNSTON 


GEOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY 


OF 


CALIFORNIA 


SPECIAL   BULLETIN 


A  PAPER  BY 
THOMAS  CRAWFORD  JOHNSTON,  ESQ. 


"DID  THE  PHCENICIANS  DISCOVER  AHERICA?" 

EMBRACING 

The  Origin  of  the  Aztecs,  with  some  Further  Light  on  Phoenician  Civilization  and 
Colonization. 

The  Origin  of  the  Mariners'  Compass. 
The  Original  Discovery  of  America. 


ILLUSTRATED 


Appearing  in  the  "Californian  Illustrated  Magazine, 
November  and  December,  1892 


Copyright,  1892,  by  Thorns  CraX^orrt  i 


PREFACE. 


Perhaps  no  question  has  so  murh  perplexed  the  scientists  of  the  past  four  hundred 
years  as  the  vexed  one  of  the  origin  of  the  Aztecs  and  the  ancient  and  high  civilization  of 
Central  America  that  confronted  the  Spanish  conquerors  on  their  arrival,  and  that  up  to  the 
present  period  has  received  no  satisfactory  solution.  It  is  therefore  with  great  pleasure 
that  this  Society  presents  to  the  scientific  world  the  following  most  valuable  and  scholarly 
paper  of  Mr.  Johnston's  which  seems  in  a  fair  way  to  clear  up  the  mystery  which  has  so 
long  shrouded  this  interesting  region. 

In  order  that  this  desirable  result  may  be  attained  we  invite  the  co-operation  of  the 
learned  in  this  and  other  countries  and  shall  be  happy  to  receive  communications  either 
throwing  light  on  the  three  absorbing  topics  embraced  in  this  paper  or  inviting  discussion 
on  whatsoever  points  may  appear  doubtful,  so  that  d'accord  with  Mr.  Johnston  we  may  be 
enabled  to  furnish  such  information  as  the  vast  fund  of  material  which  he  has  collected 
bearing  on  those  topics  can  afford,  and  which  he  has  hitherto  abstained  from  utilizing  in  his 
work  with  a  view  to  the  attention  of  the  reader  not  being  diverted  from  the  main  issues  by 
its  length. 

In  the  meantime  we  venture  to  make  a  few  remarks  which  may  possibly  be  of  some 
assistance  in  arriving  at  a  decision  with  regard  to  the  correctness  of  Mr.  Johnston's 
theory. 

'  -cording  to  the  traditions  still  existing  amongst  the  Central  Americans,  and  so  much  of 

^ztec  manuscript  literature  as  escaped  the  destructive  hands  of  the  Spaniards  and  is 
to  be  found  in  the  elaborate  work  of  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  the  earliest  Amer- 
ican civilization  originated  in  Yucatan  and  the  neighboring  districts,  a  region  which  is 
amongst  the  most  fertile  in  the  NP.W  W~~ld.  There,  about  1000  B.  c.,  Votan,  the  first  of 
the  American  legislators,  csta  'wlic.  ^elf,  and  Palenque,  said  to  be  the  oldest  city  in 
Central  America,  was  founded.  He  and  his  people  evidently  came  from  the  West  for  it  is 
stated  that  they  found  the  whole  coast  from  Darien  to  California  occupied  by  a  barbarous 
people,  thus  showing  that  their  first  discoveries  were  made  on  that,  and  not  on  the  East  side 
of  the  continent,  at  the  same  time  that  it  will  be  apparent  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the 
geographical  configuration  of  this  region  that  this  journey  must  have  been  undertaken  in 
ships  and  not  by  land.  Votan  appears  to  have  made  four  voyages  to  and  from  his  original 
country  and  stated  that  in  one  of  them  he  visited  the  "  dwelling  of  the  thirteen  serpents  " 
(Benares)  as  also  the  ruins  of  an  old  building  which  had  been  erected  by  men  for  the  purpose  of 
reaching  heaven.  Now  these  four  voyages  would  seem  to  correspond  to  an  equal  number 
of  the  joint  ones  of  the  Jews  and  Phoenicians,  which,  according  to  the  best  historic  infor- 
mation, ceased  with  the  death  of  Solomon — viz. ,  in  forty -five  years,  but  at  what  period  those 
of  the  Phoenicians,  when  undertaken  alone,  came  to  an  end,  it  is  impossible  to  determine 
with  the  limited  knowledge  at  our  disposal. 

We  have  here,  however,  facts  which  have  long  been  within  the  scope  and  cognizance  of 
the  scientific  world ;  the  great  difficulty  consisted  in  ascertaining  the  nationality  of  the 
strangers  who  arrived  on  the  west  coast  of  America  clad  "  in  long  flowing  robes  "  and  who 
had  evidently  visited  Benares  and  the  ruins  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  as  above  intimated. 
The  identification  of  two  stages  of  the  voyage  was  thus  established,  but  what  were  the 
intermediate  ones?  How  were  the  vast  intervening  spaces  traversed  at  a  period  when 
navigation  wras  comparatively  in  its  infancy  ?  The  solution  of  this  difficulty  seems  to  have 
been  overcome  by  Mr.  Johnston.  Being  familiar  with  the  history  and  architecture  of  the 
Phoenicians  and  Aztecs  and  with  the  facts  above  stated,  he  was  fortunately  placed  on  the 


6  PREFACE. 

track  of  discovery  of  the  missing  links  in  Votan's  voyages  by  the  examination  of  the 
massive  masonry  existing  in  many  of  the  Polynesian  Islands  which  he  spent  a  considerable 
time  in  visiting,  and  which  appeared  to  him  to  be  of  indisputably  Phoenician  origin.  There 
still  remained  one  problem  not  easy  to  solve,  viz.,  how  the  Phoenicians,  if  the  builders  of 
that  masonry  and  the  original  discoverers  of  America  were  really  of  that  nation,  could  find 
their  way  across  considerable  stretches  of  ocean  without  the  aid  of  the  pole  star  which  in 
ancient  times  was  their  guide  in  the  northern  hemisphere — that  difficulty,  however,  in  Mr. 
Johnston's  opinion,  disappeared  when  he  discovered  a  design  of  the  mariner's  compass  in 
the  celebrated  so-called  Mexican  calendar  stone,  the  antiquity  of  which  is  unknown  and 
whose  origin  he  also  ascribes  to  the  same  source.  (In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  this  Society  has  recently  received  from  Don  Leopold  Batres,  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment archaeologist,  a  pamphlet  descriptive  of  this  stone  which  he  calls  the  "  Piedra  de 
Agua  "  or  "  Water  Stone,"  possibly  on  account  of  the  Aztec  hieroglyphic  for  water  being 
found  at  the  foot  of  the  southern  point  of  the  compass. 

It  might  seem  strange  that  the  Phoenicians  should  make  use  of  that  instrument  in 
their  voyages  in  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans  and  their  acquaintance  with  it  not  be  sus- 
pected during  the  long  duration  of  their  navigation  in  the  Mediterranean,  to  the  Cassiterides 
or  Tin  Islands,  the  Baltic  Sea,  etc.,  but  this  may  be  accounted  for  as  being  one  of  the  precau- 
tions they  adopted  to  conceal  their  routes  of  travel  from  possible  rivals.  That  they  should  have 
preserved  this  secret  for  so  long  a  period  does  not  however  seem  more  strange  than  the  loss 
of  the  secret  known  to  them  for  tempering  copper.  It  may  here  be  added  that  among 
the  Jews  and  Pluenicians  the  south  pole  was  the  emphasized  point,  being  considered  by 
them  the  right  hand  of  the  world,  and  if  we  seek  the  magnetic  positive  pole  of  the  earth 
it  is  the  south  pole,  because  the  negative  point  of  the  needle  vibrates  in  that  direction, 
demonstrating  that  the  Phoenician  compass  was  scientifically  more  correct  than  the  modern 
one. 

if  It  has  been  objected  that  the  Phoenician  ships  were  not  of  sufficient  size  either  to  con- 
tain an  adequate  quantity  of  provisions  and  water  for  a  voyage  of  any  great  length  or  even 
to  make  those  voyages  if  in  the  open  sea.  The  following  quotation  from  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica  would  seem  to  be  a  conclusive  answer.  "  It  is  not  hard  to  understand  how  the 
ancients  made  navigation  also  an  invention  of  the  Phoenicians,  whose  skill  as  seamen  was 
never  matched  by  any  ancient  people  before  or  after  them.  Even  in  later  times  Greek 
observers  noted  with  admiration  the  exact  order  kept  on  board  Phctnician  ships,  the 
skill  with  which  every  corner  of  space  was  utilized,  the  careful  disposition  of  the  cargo, 
the  vigilance  of  the  steersmen  and  their  mates.  All  their  vessels,  from  the  common  round 
"gaulos"  to  the  great  Tharshish  ships,  the  East  Indiamen,  so  to  speak,  of  the  ancient 
world,  had  a  speed  which  the  Greeks  never  rivalled." 

,  Another  point  has  already  given  rise  to  criticism,  viz.,  that  Mr.  Johnston  should  lay 

so  much  stress  on  the  enormous  quantities  of  gold  brought  to  Judfe  and  Tyre  on  the 
return  voyages  of  the  Phoenicians.  The  expressed  idea  is  that  it  was  imported  from  Arabia 
and  India  and  not  from  America.  True  it  is  that,  according  to  x  chap.  1st  Kings — the 
Queen  of  Sheba  presented  Solomon  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  talents  of  gold  (about 
$3,600,000) ;  the  Phoenician  contributions  were,  however,  far  greater.  But  when  the  source 
of  supply  of  another  precious  metal,  silver,  has  to  be  determined,  it  is  clear  that  it  cannot 
be  ascribed  to  either  of  those  two  countries  and  that  such  a  seemingly  fabulous  quantity  as, 
according  to  the  same  authority,  was  received  by  Solomon  (who  on  that  account  seems  not 
to  have  set  much  value  on  the  metal)  can  only  have  come  from  such  large  silver  producing 
regions  as  Mexico  and  Peru.  A  great  deal  was  undoubtedly  brought  from  Spain,  but  this 
consideration  is  entirely  irrelevant  to  the  voyages  commenced  at  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  ending  with  cargoes  of  "gold,  silver,  ivory,  apes  and  peacocks"  the  latter  of  which 
could  only  come  from  India. 

Mr.  Johnston  begins  the  title  of  his  paper  with  the  words,  "Origin  of  the  Aztecs," 
but  scientists  will  at  once  recognize  that  this  is  simply  a  generic  term  covering  the 


PREFACE.  7 

various  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  the  races  occupying  the  regions  in  question 
prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards — supposing  Mr.  Johnston's  theory  to  be  correct. 
Those  races  must  be  considered  in  a  great  measure  the  issue  of  the  inter-marriages 
of  the  Phoenicians  with  the  so-called  savages  whom  they  found  in  occupation  of  the  country, 
but  whom  they  may  possibly  have  so  designated  because  they  were  not  equally  civilized 
with  themselves. 

According  to  Biart  (  "  Les  Aztecs  "  )  it  is  beyond  all  doubt  that  the  monuments  to  be 
found  in  the  ruins  of  the  extremely  ancient  cities  of  the  whole  of  Central  America  are  the 
work  of  a  single  race  executed  in  different  ages  and  obeying  identical  conditions  of  art  and 
civilization. 

Dr.  Morton  divides  the  American  races  into  two  primitive  ones — the  Toltecan  and  the 
American — the  former  embracing  the  civilized  nations  of  Mexico,  Peru  and  Bogota,  the 
civilization  of  the  Bogotese  being,  like  their  geographical  position,  intermediate  between 
the  Peruvian  and  Mexican.  That  civilization  was  clearly  derived  from  the  same 
source  and  we  can  now  give  a  little  attention  to  that  of  Peru  so  far  as  regards  resemblances 
between  their  arts  and  those  of  the  Phoenicians,  for  instance :  their  masonry  was  of  an 
exceptional  character;  like  the  Phoenicians  they  understood  mechanics  sufficiently  to  move 
stones  of  vast  size,  even  of  thirty  feet  in  length,  of  which  specimens  are  still  to  be  seen  at 
Cuzco  and  which  are  of  an  identical  nature  with  those  found  at  Mayapam,  on  the  Island  of 
Rappa,  and  as  substructions  of  Solomon's  temple;  they  had  the  art  of  squaring  blocks  for 
building  with  great  accuracy  ;and  it  is  now  known  that  the  Peruvians  had  hard  chisels  made  of 
copper  with  a  mixture  of  thirteen  per  cent  of  tin,  a  proof  of  considerable  experience  in  the 
working  of  metals.  This  would  coincide  with  what  we  learn  of  Phoenician  proficiency  in 
metallurgy  and  especially  their  well-known  skill  in  the  use  of  bronze. 

We  may  now  conclude  with  a  slight  resum£  of  similarities  to  be  found  between  the  two 
nations  and  which  may  tend  to  still  further  elucidate  Mr.  Johnston's  theory  and  prove  its 
correctness. 

1.  When  the  Spaniards  arrived  in  Mexico,  Cortez  received  from  Montezuma  charts  of 
the  harbors  on  the  coast  and  we  know  from  Herodotus  that  the  Phoenicians  were  accustomed 
to  survey  those  with  which  they  traded. 

2.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  recall  the  fact  that  both  the  Aztecs  and  Phoenicians  were 
traders  on  a  large  scale. 

3.  They  were  equally  expert  in  gem  engraving  and  the  manufacture  of  jewelry. 

4.  To  both  of  them  the  use  of  paper  was  common,  with  the  Phcenicians  in  the  shape  of 
papyrus ;  with  the  Aztecs,  manufactured  from  leaves,  especially  those  of  the  aloe. 

5.  They  had  an  almost  identical  cosmogony. 

6.  The  earliest  traditions  of  the  history  of  the  world,  including  the  deluge,  the  build- 
ing of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  and  the  confusion  of  languages  were  common  to  both. 

7.  An  intensely  spiritual  conception  of  the  Deity  was  a  distinctive  feature  of  the  early 
religious  worship  of  both  peoples,  while  the  decadence  of  the  Phoenician  worship  which 
ultimately  degenerated  into  the  appalling  custom  of  human  sacrifice  was  equally  true  in  the 
case  of  the  Aztecs,  at  the  same  time  that  that  decadence  and  the  successive  changes  in  the 
modes  of  worship  might  almost  seem  to  have  been  contemporaneous  at  what,  according  to 
Mr.  Johnston,  might  well  be  called  the  extremities  of  the  Phoenician  empire. 

Still  quoting  M.  Biart :  "  At  the  festivals  in  honor  of  Tlaloc,  the  Aztec  Neptune,  he  was 
worshipped  with  strange  ceremonies  and  human-  sacrifices,  especially  of  children,  and  in 
the  cemetery  not  long  since  discovered  by  M.  Desire  Charnay  on  one  of  the  slopes  of  Popo 
catapetl  only  bones  of  children  were  found ;  it  is  therefore  considered  by  the  learned  Dr. 
Hamy  as  the  burial  place  of  the  young  victims  so  sacrificed.  It  scarcely  needs  to  be  repeated 
that  this  was  also  a  peculiar  feature  of  Phoenician  worship. 

8.  Duplicates  of  the  gigantic  aqueducts  built  by  the  Phoenicians  for  Solomon  are  to 
be  found  in  Mexico. 

9.  The  Lotus  was  a  decoration  common  to  both  nations. 


8  PREFACE. 

10.  The  existence  in  both  countries  of  a  calendar  of  apparently  identical  origin.  M. 
Biart  considers  that  the  chief  title  of  the  Aztecs  to  glory  even  in  the  eyes  of  Europeans 
has  for  a  long  time  been  their  calendar  which,  being  a  lunar  one,  presents  the  principles  of 
both  the  Egyptian  and  Asiatic  (Mr.  Johnston  has  pleaded  for  the  substitution  of  the  word 
"  Phoenician  "  for  "Egyptian.")  For  the  rest  the  Spaniards  discovered  that  the  Aztecs 
were  in  possession  of  a  calendar,  which,  to  their  great  astonishment  was  found  to  be  more 
correct  than  the  Gregorian. 

This  preface  cannot  be  considered  complete  without  a  reference  to  the  centenary  of 
Columbus'  discovery  of  this  Continent,  which  just  now  constitutes  one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent topics  throughout  the  world.  Should  even  an  universal  consensus  of  scientific  opinion 
be  in  favor  of  Mr.  Johnston's  theory  it  would  not  detract  in  the  smallest  degree  from  the 
merits  of  that  great  man,  owing  to  whose  adventurous  spirit  we  are  now  en  joying  the  bene- 
fits of  that  discovery  and  not  to  the  deeds  of  an  extinct  race  however  worthy  of  admiration 
and  respect. 

To  the  members  of  this  Society  it  is  unnecessary  to  introduce  Mr.  Johnston  as  he  has 
already  made  his  mark  in  this  city.  To  kindred  Societies  we  recommend  a  careful  perusal 
of  his  paper  which  will,  we  think,  give  them  ample  indication  of  the  fine  type  of  mind 
which  has  been  employed  in  the  laborious  elucidation  of  the,  at  first  sight,  most  intricate 
"problems  which  it  discusses. 

In  order  that  the  topics  of  absorbing  interest  contained  in  Mr.  Johnston's  paper  may 
obtain  all  possible  publicity  and  a  wide  local  field  be  opened  for  their  discussion  arrange- 
ments have  been  made  for  its  publication  in  the  now  widely  known  Californian  Ilhistrated 
Magazine. 

This  special  bulletin  will  shortly  be  followed  l>y  the  ordinary  bulletin  containing  the 
proceedings  of  the  Society. 

J.  STUDDY  LEIGH 

Secretary. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  September  15,  1892 


Fig.  i — Aztec  Calendar  or  Water  Stone. 


DID  THE  PHOENICIANS  DISCOVER  AMERICA  ? 

No.   I. 


BY   THOMAS    CRAWFORD  JOHNSTON. 


LIEUTENANT  A.  G.  FINDLAY, 
F.  R.  G.  S.,  in  describing  the 
stone  remains  on  the  Island  of 
Rappa,  in  the  Austral  group,  says  in 
his  ' '  South  Pacific  Directory  :  "  "  On 
the  summit  of  six  of  the  highest  hills 
are  to  be  seen  square  terraces,  or  forti- 
fied places,  some  of  which  are  of  very 
elaborate  construction  ;  but  what  is 
very  singular,  they  are  mostly  solid 
within.  The  stones  are  well  squared, 
of  very  large  size,  and  well  cemented, 
and  are  evidently  analogous  to  the 
terraces  described  on  Easter  Is- 
land." 

Again,  in  describing   Easter  Island, 
he  says  :     "  This  is  one  of  the  most 


interesting  spots  in  the  Pacific.  It  is 
remarkably  isolated,  as  it  is  some  two 
thousand  and  thirty  miles  from  the 
coast  of  Chile,  and  one  thousand  five 
hundred  miles  from  the  nearest  inhab- 
ited land,  except  Pitcairn  Island,  so 
that  its  people  and  their  history  are 
an  ethnological  problem,  worthy  of 
much  consideration,  while  their  origin 
is  one  of  the  most  important  problems 
connected  with  the  migrations  of  races. 
How  the  early  navigators  in  their 
canoes  managed  to  reach  this  lonely 
spot,  in  the  teeth  of  the  usual 
tradewinds,  is  one  of  those  mysteries, 
the  solution  of  which  would  clear  up 
many  difficulties  in  the  history  of 


IO 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


the   early    races    and    civilization    of 
Peru  and  Central  America. 

' '  The  character  of  the  architectural 
and  other  remains  evidently  points  to 


-Sieumanu,  Governor  of  Apia,  Samoa. 


an  Eastern  origin.  This  little  island, 
therefore,  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
solution  of  this  question,  is  of  more 
than  ordinary  interest.  Its  position 
should  afford  a  clue  to  the  mystery  of 
its  original  settlers.  It  is  near  the 
southern  verge  of  the  southeast  trades, 
which  blow  during  the  Southern 
summer,  from  October  to  April,  when 
they  commence  and  leave  off,  being 
strong  for  about  a  fortnight.  During 
the  rest  of  the  year,  it  is  in  the  tropi- 
cal variables.  For  a  few  months, 
westerly  winds  prevail,  which  bring 
much  rain.  It  is  therefore  probable 
that  this  was  the  time  of  the  voyage  ; 
but  how  such  a  craft  could  be  guided 
due  east,  without  a  compass,  will  be 
a  mystery  to  modern  navigators. 

' '  The  papakoo,  or  cemetery,  on 
Easter  Island,  is  a  terrace,  or  platform, 
by  the  sea,  made  of  rolled  sea  stones 


carefully  fitted  together  ;  but  another 
very  singular  structure  found  there 
is  the  platform  on  which  numerous 
images  have  been  placed.  They  are 
built  on  the  land  facing  the  sea,  and 
constructed  with  large  unhewn  stones 
fitted  with  great  exactness.  On  this 
platform  are  numerous  images,  now 
prostrate ;  some  low  pillars,  appar- 
ently used  for  sacrifice,  and  others  for 
burning  bodies,  as  burnt  bones  were 
found  near  them.  Similar  platforms 
have  been  found  in  the  islands  to  the 
northwestward,  especially  one  buried 
under  guano,  on  Maldou  Island,  and 
this,  again,  connects  them  with  anal- 
ogous ruins  in  Peru." 

Mr.  Rawlinson  says  of  the  Gibeon- 
ites  :    ' '  They  were  specially  skilled 
in    the    hewing    and   squaring    of 
those  great  masses  of  stone  with 
1     which  the  Phoenicians  were  wont 
•    to  build,  and  we  probably  see  their 
work  in  those  recently  uncovered 
blocks    of    enormous    size,    which 
r      formed   the   substructions  of  Solo- 
mon's  Temple    (i   Kings,   v.    18). 
At  a  later  date,  they  were  noted  as 
'  caulkers, '  and  were  employed  by 
the   Tyrians,    to  make   their   ves- 
sels water-tight,   Ezekiel   (27   and 
29)." 

That  there  should  be  any  connec- 
tion between  the  Phoenician  race,  the 
origin  of  the  Aztecs,  the  mariner's 
compass,  the  ancient  cities  and  high 
civilization  of  Central  America,  the 
substructions  found  on  the  Islands  of 
the  Pacific,  and  those  of  Solomon's 
Temple,  seems  too  wonderful  to  be 
true,  and  yet  I  think  that  the  data 


Fig.  3— Easter  Island   Platform,  center  stone  five  and  a 
half  tons. 


contained   in  this    paper  will  remove 
any  future  doubt  on  this  subject. 
During    a   year   and    a    half    spent 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


II 


among    the    Islands    of    the     South 
Pacific,  just  prior  to  the  Samoan  war, 
I    came    across    some    facts    that    so 
arrested  my  attention  as  to  awaken  a 
new  line  of  inquiry,  that  in  course  of 
time  has  woven  itself  into  a  series  of 
connected  and  inter-related  data,  of  so 
extraordinary      and     far-reaching     a 
nature,  that  I  now  feel  that  it  is  time 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  scientific 
world  to  them,  in  order  that  a  larger 
field    of    observation,    and   a   more 
numerous  body  of  capable  investi- 
gators may  verify  or  contradict  the 
conclusion  arrived  at. 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with 
Mr.  Rawlinson's  scholarly  work  on 
the  Phoenicians  may  remember  his 
description  of  these  people.  He 
says  :  ' '  They  were  of  a  complexion 
intermediate  between  the  pale  races 
of  the  North  and  the  swart  inhabi- 
tants of  the  South,  having  abundant 
hair,  sometimes  curly,  but  never 
wooll}1-.  Thej-  were  above  the  me- 
dium height,  and  had  features  not 
unlike  the  Aryans,  or  Caucasians, 
but  somewhat  less  refined  and  regu- 
lar, the  nose  broadish  and  inclined 
to  be  hooked,  the  lips  a  little  too 
full,  and  their  frames  inclined  to 
stoutness  and  massiveness,  while 
both  in  form  and  feature  they  resem- 
bled the  Jews,  who  were  their  near 
neighbors,  and  not  infrequently  inter- 
married with  them." 

It  is  impossible  for  one  to  spend  even 
a  short  time  in  Samoa  without  realizing 
how  suitable  such  a  description  would 
be  if  applied  to  the  Samoans,  while 
each  day's  observation  of  them,  their 
habits  and  customs,  would  only  deepen 
the  conviction  that  the  observer  was 
in  contact  with  a  people  whose  social 
usages  must,  at  some  possibly  remote 
period,  have  been  in  very  close  touch 
with  Hebrew  institutions.  The  only 
point  on  which  there  is  any  weakness 
in  the  description  is  the  nose,  and 
this  is  easily  accounted  for  by  a  curi- 
ous custom  that  prevails  over  these 
islands  of  manipulating  the  cartilages, 
while  the  child  is  young,  so  that  what 
they  call  the  disfigurement  of  the 


' '  canoe  nose  ' '  of  the  Semitic  may  be 
removed — a  custom  that  is  univer- 
sal over  these  islands.  Not  only 
is  there  to  be  found  circumcision  and 
the  test  of  virginity,  neither  of  which 
has  the  adopted  Christianity  of  to-day 
removed,  but  marriage  itself  is  hedged 
about  with  restrictions  in  the  form  of 
a  table  of  consanguinity  that  is  almost 


Fig.  4 — Lanetiti,  Sieumanu's  Wife. 

a  duplicate  of  that  found  in  the  Bible, 
while  the  intensely  spiritual  form  of 
the  early  native  worship,  with  an 
almost  total  absence  of  idols,  gives 
cause  to  look  for  further  evidence  of 
the  relation  that  at  some  date  must 
have  existed  between  these  people. 

I  am  aware  that  there  are  many 
other  and  different  types  found  in  that 
region,  but  that  is  only  what  may  be 
expected  when  we  recollect  the  influ- 
ences that  have  been  at  work,  and  the 
time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  first 
settlement.  This,  however,  does  not 
weaken  but  rather  strengthens  the 
claim  of  such  evidence  as  we  now  find 
of  the  presence  of  the  Phoenicians  in 
that  portion  of  the  Pacific. 

That  a  high  civilization,  having  an 
identical  origin,  must,  at  some  remote 
period,  have  prevailed  throughout 


12 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


Polynesia,  no  one  who  has  come  in 
contact  with  the  native  usages,  and 
the  various  stone  remains  on  Easter, 
Rappa,  Ascension,  Marshall,  Gilbert, 
Ladrones,  Swallow,  Strong's,  Navi- 
gator, and  Hawaiian  Islands,  can  for 
a  moment  doubt ;  and,  curiously 
enough,  the  native  traditions  of  all  of 
them  refer  their  origin  to  some  land  ly- 
ing in  the  direction  of  the  setting  sun. 
The  relation  of  Strong's  Island  to 


round  the  harbor,  which  had  been 
occupied  by  a  powerful  people  called 
'Anut,'  who  had  large  vessels  in 
which  they  made  long  voyages  east 
and  west.  Many  moons  being  re- 
quired for  these  voyages." 

When  we  come  eastward,  and  reach 
Mexico,  we  find  the  evidence  of  their 
presence  intensified  a  thousandfold, 
not  only  in  the  architectural  remains 
where  the  conglomerate  decorations 


Fig.  5 — Feisamoa,  Chief,  with  Feather  Head  Dress. 


this  line  of  research  is  a  peculiarly 
interesting  one.  At  the  entrance  to 
the  harbor  may  be  seen  a  quad- 
rangular tower,  forty  feet  high,  and 
some  stone-lined  canals,  while  on  the 
adjacent  island  of  Hele  are  cyclopean 
walls  formed  of  very  large  stones, 
well  squared,  which  form  an  enclosure 
overgrown  by  forests.  These  walls 
are  twelve  feet  thick,  and  in  them  are 
vaults,  artificial  caverns,  and  secret 
passages.  The  natives  of  this  island 
have  a  remarkable  tradition,  namely  : 
"That  an  ancient  city  formerly  stood 


carry  the  marks  of  their  peculiar  genius 
as  clearly  as  the  Greek  does  in  its 
own  way,  but  also  in  the  form  of  relig- 
ious worship,  which  is  clearly  Phoeni- 
cian in  its  base  and  entire  outline. 

The  human  sacrifice,  and  the  idol, 
half-man  and  half-brute,  are  beyond 
question  those  of  the  Phoenician  Baal 
or  Moloch  ;  while  on  the  various 
bronzes  we  see  the  winged  disc  of 
Egypt,*  which  Mr.  Rawlinson  men- 
tions as  one  of  their  peculiar  designs. 
And  perhaps  more  curious  still,  we 

*  Fig.  17,  in  Part  II,  this  article. 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


find  among  the  remains  of  this  people 
in  the  ancient  and  Capital  city  of 
Mexico  what  has  been  called  a  calen- 
dar stone  (Fig.  i),  which  anyone  may 
see  at  a  glance  is  a  national  monument 
of  a  seafaring  people  in  the  form  of  a 
mariner's  compass,  and  to  which  they 
probably  attributed  the  fact  that  they 
had  discovered  this  new  world. 


entire  thirty-two  parts  into  which 
what  we  are  accustomed  to  call  our 
improved  compass  is  divided  are  pres- 
ent, while  in  the  main  point  will  be 
seen  the  faces  of  Cox  and  Cox,  the 
Mexican  Noah  and  his  wife,  the  first 
recorded  navigators,  and  underneath 
these  the  Aztec  symbol  for  water. 
The  wonder  does  not,  however, 


Fig.  6 — Siotolana,  Maid  of  Village  Samoa. 


On  looking  at  this  stone  carefully, 
it  will  be  noticed  that  the  only  feature 
giving  weight  to  the  Calendar  theory 
is  the  hieroglyphics  on  the  inner 
circle,  which  correspond  to  the  twenty - 
day  month  of  the  Aztec.  When,  how- 
ever, we  read  the  stone  as  a  memorial 
of  the  compass,  it  is  far  otherwise,  for 
it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  not  only  a 
north  and  a  south,  but  also  the  other 
and  remaining  cardinal  points,  duly 
emphasized;  and  amazing  to  relate, 
not  only  this,  but  in  subdivisions  the 


cease  here;  for  if  we  place  the  stone  in 
the  correct  position  with  reference  to 
the  sun-god,  in  the  center,  _it  .will  be 
observed  that  the  determined  poiirLis 
not  north  but  south,  and  that  in  this 
respect  it  is  ^identical  with  the  Chinese 
compass,  indicating  that  it  must  have 
had  its  origin  among  a  people  accus- 
tomed to  navigate  in  latitudes  to  the 
south  of  their  permanent  home. 

Now  this  so  corresponds  ;with  our 
knowledge  of  the  main  trend  of  earl y 
Phoenician  navigation  and  commerce 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


as  to  form  a  fresh  and  interesting  link 
in  this  chain  of  evidence  ;  and  this  the 
more  so  because  we  know  that  the 
Chinese  compass  was  a  rude  and 
altogether  unsatisfactory  instrument, 
having  only  twenty  -  four  points, 
whereas  we  find  in  this  the  evi- 
dence of  a  comprehensive  apprehen- 
sion of  the  scientific  value  and  use  of 
the  instrument,  which  were  essential 
to  the  wide-spread  navigation,  and 
characteristic  of  the  finished  work 
and  mathematical  precision  of  the 


Ocean,  where  the  pole-star  cannot  be 
seen,  and  where,  indeed,  if  it  could, 
the  knowledge  of  its  existence  would 
be  of  little  use  to  them.  All  steering 
is  done  by  a  determined  north;  either 
a  true  north  or  a  magnetic  north,  and 
we  know  that  the  magnetic  qualities 
of  metals  were  known  to  the  Phoeni- 
cians, for  Sanchoniathon  ascribes  to 
Chronos  the  invention  of  "Batulia," 
or  ' '  stones  that  moved  as  if  they  had 
life,"  and  we  know  that  Chronos 
lived  two  thousand  eight  hundred 


•    ^,;->-^'>  i-7    "*^-J ;  J%jS?**»  ..•••iSr    i^^T^^B^LE^-^-.-v-, 

%^t^$^:#^ 

w^&^^^^^^^^^^^^^& 


^vJ£F;<«*  ^"^r-* — i 

^•%^ Xr^V  ^-V— *«J 

T^V  V— •    -  j»  *C  -i''    \J         -    t  ;JL  :%»       *• 

IS  2?Sfr sJ^^  ^-  - 

iSti1?^!'  ..••  i)-*!.*..  fea    . 


Fig.  7 — Easter  Island  Platform. 


Phoenicians.  But  apart  from  this,  there 
are  some  historic  facts  in  existence 
which,  while  isolated,  might  be 
questionable  data,  that  in  connection 
with  this  receive  a  new  value. 

That  the  Phoenicians  ventured  on 
long  voyages,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion, for  Herodotus  makes  a  distinct 
statement  to  this  effect,  and  says  they 
were  accustomed  to  steer  by  the  pole- 
star.  In  this  he  simply  wrote  as  a 
landsman  would.  Mariners  do  not 
steer  south  by  east,  or  due  east  or 
west,  as  :these  Phoenicians  were 
accustomed  to  do  on  their  historic 
route,  by  the  pole-star,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  the  main  trend  of 
their  navigation  was  in  the  Indian 


years  before  Christ.  We  therefore 
conclude  that  the  knowledge  must 
have  passed  from  the  Phoenicians  into 
China,  the  more  so  because  McDavies, 
whose  elaborate  investigation  of  the 
history  of  the  compass  has  made  him 
one  of  the  eminent  authorities  on  this 
subject,  states  that  the  earliest  date  at 
which  it  was  known  in  China  was 
2604  B.  C.;  and,  curiously  enough, 
the  term  used  by  the  Chinese  two 
hundred  years  after  Chronos,  is 
almost  identical  in  its  significance 
with  that  of  the  Phoenicians,  the 
Chinese  compass  being  called  the 
Tche  Chay,  or  directing  stone. 

The  history  of  the  Plaoenicians  was 
a   remarkable  one  for  man}7  reasons, 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


for  apart  from  the  fact  that  they 
claimed  to  be  the  most  ancient  of 
mankind,  and  in  their  day  exercised 
an  influence  on  the  world  that  in  these 
late  years  finds  a  suitable  counterpart 
only  in  the  history  of  the  scientific, 
commercial  and  philological  suprem- 
acy of  the  English-speaking  peoples, 
yet  their  ruling  characteristic  seems 


time,  they  were  on  the  most  familiar 
footing,  the  Egyptians,  Hebrews,  ! 
Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Greeks  and 
Persians  not  only  welcoming  them  to 
their  territory,  but,  as  if  by  mutual 
compact,  protecting  their  caravans  and 
opening  their  ports  to  their  merchant- 
men, whose  business  it  was  to  cater 
to  their  needs  and  adapt  themselves  to 


^^?lp^^ 

^S^^^m^^S^^^  ^- w;^^> 
^--  *iEWi*  sS3?  •*  SS^^s  J^'^  xs^JKSfe 

" 


Fig.  S — Easter  Island  Platforrp 


to  have  been  not  so  much  their  indi- 
viduality as  their  pliability — a  char- 
acteristic that  was  absolutely  essential 
to  their  colonial  and  commercial  suc- 
cess. 

They  seem  to  have  had  a  wonderful 
faculty  of  adapting  themselves  to 
every  condition  of  human  life,  and  to 
the  peculiar  bias  and  feeling  of  the 
varied  civilized  and  uncivilized  peo- 
ples with  whom  they  came  in  contact 
in  course  of  their  mercantile  ventures. 
They  were  not  warriors,  although 
they  did  and  could  fight  when  occa- 
sion called  for  it,  but  even  then,  as 
Alexander  found,  the  quality  that  was 
opposed  to  his  force  of  arms  was  not 
warriors  so  much  as  men  of  the 
keenest  intellectuality,  who  used  that 
power  by  methods  never  dreamed  of 
by  their  duller  opponents. 

With  all  the  great  nations  of  their 


the  requirements  of  every  country 
with  which  they  had  established  busi- 
ness relations. 

In  consequence  of  this  fact,  as  Mr. 
Rawlinson  points  out,  their  commer- 
cial relations  with  these  varied  peoples 
had  a  reflex  influence  on  themselves, 
their  work,  wherever  found,  showing 
that  in  their  metallurgy  their  motives 
are  invariably  either  Egyptian  or 
Assyrian,  while  their  sculptures  usu- 
ally showed  a  large  admixture  of 
Greek. 

This  is  a  most  important  point,  and 
I  seek  to  emphasize  it,  for.it  is  the 
key  to  what,  up  to  this  date,  has  been 
an  unsolved  enigma  of  unusual  impor- 
tance, the  solution  of  which  will  set 
in  operation  a  new  set  of  facts,  whose 
influence  will  be  so  far-reaching  as  to 
afford  more  or  less  light  on  some  of 
the  most  interesting  as  well  as  per- 


i6 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


plexing  of  the  ethnological  and 
philological  problems  of  to-day. 

Of  all  the  nations  of  their  time,  the 
Phoenicians  stood  in  the  front  rank. 
In  the  practical  arts,  as  well  as  in  the 
exact  sciences,  they  were  in  their  own 
wide  sphere,  without  a  competitor^ 
They  were  masons,  dyers,  glass- 
blowers,  workers  in  metal,  and  at  the 
same  time  carpenters  and  shipbuilders, 
but  beyond  all  other  peoples,  'navi- 
gators and  explorers,  being  the  first 
to  face  the  dangers  of  the  open  ocean, 
and  make  known  to  civilized  nations, 
not  only  the  remoter  regions  of  'Asia, 
Africa  and  Europe^,  but,  as  I  think  I 
shall  succeed  in  demonstrating,  the 
first  to  discover  America,  and  the 
authors  of  the  ancient  and  high  civil- 
ization found  there,  which,  up  to  this 
time,  has  been  an  unsolved  enigma. 

Of  the  wares  which  they  purveyed 
to  the  various  nations  using  their 
commodities,  many  samples  have  in 


Fig.  9 — Aztec  Vase  with  Assyrian  Decoration. 

these  late  years  been  found,  that  give 
much  light  on  the  influences^  that 
seem  to  have  been  at  work  in  the 
manufacturing  establishments  of  this 
extraordinary  people,  and  as  this  is 
essential  to  a  complete  understanding 
of  the  subject,  I  may  say  that  Mr. 
Rawlinson,  whom  I  have  followed 
closely  in  this  investigation,  points 


out  that  the  Phoenicians  had  two 
instructors  in  their  gem  engraving, 
namely,  Babylon  and  Egypt,  deriving 
from  each  certain  features  of  their 
practice. 

Animals,  for  the  most  part  griffins 
and  sphynxes, but  often  accurately  cop- 
ied from  nature, form  the  great  staple  of 
Phoenician  art.  The  subjects  of  their 
designs,  however,  show  little  orig- 
inality, being  in  almost  every  ca.ce 
adapted  either  from  Egypt  or  Baby- 
lon— the  hawk  of  Raa,  the  Egyptian 
sun-god,  the  cynocephalous  ape, 
sphynxes,  winged  disks  and  serpents, 
drawing  of  an  original  character  being 
shown  only  in  very  few  instances. 

It  is  impossible  to  overrate  this 
testimony  as  to  the  peculiar  bent  of 
the  genius  of  the  Phoenicians,  for  in 
its  own  broad  line  of  demarkation,  it 
not  only  makes  them  a  unique  people, 
with  an  apparent  mission  to  the 
remainder  of  mankind,  but  likewise 
enabled  them  to  fill  what  was  as 
essential  a  sphere  in  the  populating 
and  civilizing  of  the  outskirts  of  the 
then  known  world,  as  was  the  genius 
of  the  Greeks  for  a  more  limited 
sphere,  or  of  the  Jews  for  the  preser- 
vation of  a  pure  moral  code,  when  the 
remainder  of  mankind  had  run  riot 
with  undisciplined  excess. 

It  is  not  strange  that  it  was  so. 
Indeed,  it  was  on  just  such  lines  that 
we  would  expect  to  find  the  genius  of 
a  great  mercantile  people  develop 
itself,  for  the  reason  that  their  success 
depended  in  no  small  measure  on 
their  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the 
national,  and  especially  the  religious 
prejudice  of  the  peoples  to  whose 
wants  they  catered  must  be  respected 
as  well  as  stimulated.  As  artists  and 
artificers,  there  was  ample  room  for 
the  exercise  of  their  peculiar  genius  in 
the  production  of  wares  whose  form 
and  adornment  would  be  acceptable  to 
the  highest  culture,  and  as  merchants 
in  providing  such  \vares  as  would 
command  the  readiest  sale  among  the 
wealthier  portions  of  those  communi- 
ties, where  the  highest  forms  of  civil- 
ization were  found  closely  associated 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


with  all  acceptable  forms  of  govern- 
ment. Of  course,  in  the  less  civilized 
countries  it  would  not  be  necessary  to 
follow  so  closely  this  idea,  and  the 
various  articles  in  less  active  demand, 
as  style  or  pattern  altered,  would 
naturally  find  their  way  to  the  less 
frequented  routes. 

The  flexibility  of  the  Phoenicians, 
like  that  of  the  English,  who  are  their 
modern  and  legitimate  successors  in 
their  peculiar  sphere,  was  phenomenal. 


tions  found  in  such  localities  as  they 
are  supposed  to  have  visited  by  an 
early  English  standard,  would  inev- 
itably build  data  far  removed 
from  the  real  facts  of  the  case. 
The  determining  quality  in  such 
matters  is  neither  Saxon  nor  Nor- 
man ;  the  solution  will  require  to 
be  found  on  totally  different  lines, 
since  the  strongest  evidence  of  their 
presence  will  not  be  found  in  any  one 
type  so  much  as  in  the  proof  of  their 


Fig.  10 — Ruins  of  Palace    at  Palenque — after  Charnay. 


He  who  would  attempt  to  trace,  a 
thousand  years  after  this,  the  course  of 
English  adventure  over  the  face  of  the 
earth  by  comparing  the  languages 
found  in  such  localities  as  they  were 
supposed  to  have  visited  with  the 
Saxon  root,  would  inevitably  fail,  for 
the  reason  that  it  has  now  incorporated 
inflections  from  every  quarter  in  which 
English  influence  has  been  felt,  and 
is,  in  consequence,  the  most  flexible 
as  well  as  the  most  conglomerate  of 
all  modern  languages,  and  will  become 
increasingly  so  as  time  and  the  influ- 
ence of  the  people  and  the  language 
increase.  So,  also,  he  that  would 
seek  to  determine  the  limit  of  the 
presence  of  the  English  -  speaking 
peoples  by  measuring  the  stone  erec- 


versatility,  and  their  faculty  to  make 
tributary  to  a  wide  and  pressing  com- 
mercial need  the  best  found  suitable 
to  their  purpose,  in  every  country  that 
has  come  in  contact  with  their  in- 
fluence, not  simply  reproducing 
designs,  but  with  peculiar  skill  adapt- 
ing them,  with  suitable  modifications, 
to  new  conditions  and  environ- 
ment. 

In  consequence  of  this  fact,  we  must, 
therefore,  expect  to  find  the  marks  of 
the  national  life  of  the  Phoenicians 
most  pronounced  in  what  were,  during 
their  time,  new  localities,  and  in  places 
where  the  circumscribing  and  limiting 
influence  of  a  large  civilization  (which 
is  usually  conservative)  is  absent  ;  and 
in  consequence  of  this  fact,  it  may  be 


i8 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


wise  to  consider  shortly  one  or  two 
points. 

As  masons,  the  Phosniciaiis  were  in 
request  by  Solomon  in  the  erection  of 
the  temple  ;  and  as  the  record  of  this 
association  will  be  helpful  in  the 
elucidation  of  this  problem,  I  will 
refer  to  it  shortly. 

It  is  doubtless  well  known  to  all 
readers  of  Scripture  that  a  warm 
friendship  existed  between  Hiram, 
King  of  Tyre  (by  which  name  Phoeni- 
cia at  that  time  went),  and  David, 
King  of  Israel.  In  i  Kings,  5th 
chapter,  we  read:  "And  Hiram, 
King  of  Tyre,  sent  his  servants  unto 
Solomon;  for  he  had  heard  that  they 
had  anointed  him  king  in  the  room  of 
his  father:  for  Hiram  was  ever  a  lover 
of  David."  What  the  nature  of  the 
message  sent  to  the  young  King  of 
Israel  by  this  old  friend  of  his  father's 
was,  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is  appar- 
ent from  what  follows,  that  it  was  a 
message  that  contained  much  more 
than  mere  congratulation,  and  was 
probably  accompanied  by  an  offer  to 
the  son  and  successor  of  some  tangible 
evidence  of  the  warmth  of  his  feelings 
towards  the  memory  of  his  deceased 
father,  and  of  his  interest  in  the  future 
of  the  young  king  ;  however  that  may 
be,  the  reply  sent  by  Solomon  showed 
his  peculiar  fitness  for  the  onerous 
position  that  he  had  been  called  to 
fill,  and  bore  on  the  face  of  it  evidence 
of  so  lofty  an  affection  for  his  deceased 
parent,  and  so  loyal  a  desire  to  carry 
out  his  last  wish,  that  Hiram  not  only 
acceded  to  the  request  of  Solomon, 
but  in  the  words  of  the  seventh  verse 
of  the  chapter  "rejoiced  greatly  and 
said,  blessed  be  the  Lord  this  day, 
which  hath  given  unto  David  a  wise 
son  to  rule  over  this  great  people." 

The  result  of  this  interesting  and 
affecting  exchange  of  courtesies  be- 
tween the  old  and  the  young  kings 
was  that  Hiram  undertook  in  con- 
junction with  Solomon  the  erection  of 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  in  fulfillment 
of  David's  last  wish,  and  also  of  the 
projected  palace  of  Solomon  at 
Lebanon.  Hiram,  undertaking  to 


fell  the  necessary  timbers  for  both 
buildings  in  the  forests  of  Lebanon, 
bring  them  down  the  rivers  on  the 
winter  floods,  and  deliver  them  in 
rafts  to  such  ports  as  Solomon  should 
find  to  be  most  desirable,  the  only 
stipulation  mentioned  was  that  Sol- 
omon provide  food  for  the  various 
camps  or  households  of  workmen  fur- 
nished by  Hiram.  Of  the  stupendous 
nature  of  the  operations,  which  were 
in  this  manner  inaugurated,  we  may 
form  some  idea  from  the  following 
quotation  from  i  Kings,  5th  chap- 
ter. ' '  And  the  Lord  gave  Solomon 
wisdom,  as  he  had  promised  him:  and 
there  was  peace  between  Hiram  and 
Solomon;  and  they  two  made  a  league 
together.  And  King  Solomon  raised 
a  levy  out  of  all  Israel;  and  the  levy 
was  thirty  thousand  men.  And  he  sent 
to  Lebanon  ten  thousand  a  month  by 
courses  ;  a  month  they  were  in  Leb- 
anon, and  two  months  at  home;  and 
Adoniram  was  over  the  levy.  And 
Solomon  had  threescore  and  ten  thou- 
sand that  bare  burdens,  and  fourscore 
thousand  hewers  in  the  mountains ; 
Besides  the  chief  of  Solomon's  officers, 
which  were  over  the  work,  three  thou- 
sand and  three  hundred,  which  ruled 
over  the  people  that  wrought  in  the 
work. 

' '  And  the  King  commanded  and 
the)-  brought  great  stones, costly  stones, 
and  hewed  stones  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  the  house.  And  Solomon's 
builders  and  Hiram's  builders  did  hew 
them,  and  the  stonesquarers;  so  they 
prepared  timber  and  stone  to  build  the 
house."  That  is,  there  were  thirty 
thousand  timber  fellers  in  Lebanon, 
seventy  thousand  burthen  bearers, 
eighty  thousand  hewers,  and  three 
thousand  three  hundred  overseers,  or 
in  rotation,  as  explained,  a  total  of 
one  hundred  and  eighty-three  thou- 
sand and  three  hundred  Jews  ;  and  if  an 
equal  number  of  Phoenicians  were 
added,  an  army  of  men  amounting  to 
three  hundred  and  sixty-six  thousand 
six  hundred  employed  in  this  joint 
undertaking,  which  explains,  in  con- 
j  unction  with  the  geographical  situation 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


of  Phoenicia,  the  necessity  for  Hiram's 
request,  and  the  obligation  of  Solomon, 
as  we  find  it  in  the  nth  verse  :  "  and 
Solomon  gave  Hiram  twenty  thousand 
measures  of  wheat  for  iood  for  his 
household,  and  twenty  measures  of 
pure  oil ;  thus  gave  Solomon  to  Hiram 
year  by  year." 

There  is  one  point  in  this  connec- 
tion which  it  is  necessary  to  under- 
stand in  order  that  we  may  obtain 
some  light  not  only  on  the  char- 


from  the  Greek,  is  very  contrary  to 
the  art  of  the  Hellenes.  Grecian 
architecture  starts  from  the  principle 
of  the  division  of  the  blocks  of  stone 
into  small  pieces,  and  avows  this 
principle  boldly.  Never  did  the 
Greeks  derive  from  Pentilecus  blocks 
of  a  size  at  all  comparable  to  those  of 
Baalbec  and  Egypt.  They  saw  no  ad- 
vantage in  them  ;  on  the  contrary,  they 
saw  that  with  masses  of  this  kind, 
which  are  to  be  used  entire,  the 


Fig.  n — Mural  Decoration  at  Uxunial — after  Charnay. 


acteristics  of  Phoenician  architect- 
ure and  the  substructions  found  in  the 
Pacific,  but  also  on  the  enormous 
army  of  laborers,  or  as  they  are 
called  here  ' '  burthen  bearers,  ' '  em- 
ployed on  this  work. 

M.  Renan,  in  his  work  on  "  Archi- 
tecture," says:  "The  foundation  of 
Phoenician  architecture  is  the  carved 
rock,  not  the  column,  as  with  the 
Greeks.  The  wall  replaces  the  curved 
rock  without  entirely  losing  its  char- 
acter. Nothing  conducts  to  the  belief 
that  the  Phoenicians  ever  made  use  of 
the  keyed  vault. 

"  The  principle  of  monolithism, 
which  ruled  the  Phoenician  and  Syrian 
art  even  after  it  had  adopted  much 


architect  had  his  hands  tied  ;  the 
material,  instead  of  being  subordinated 
to  the  design  of  the  edifice,  runs 
counter  to  the  design." 

The  Syrian  and  Phoenician  archi- 
tects and  even  those  of  Egypt  are  at 
the  command  of  their  material.  The 
stone  does  not  submit  to  the  shape 
which  the  artist's  thoughts  would 
impress  upon  it  ;  it  continues  to  be 
with  them  mere  rock,  more  or  less, 
that  is  to  say,  undetermined  matter. 
This  is  the  reason  why  the  Grecian 
architects  never  made  what  we  meet 
with  at  every  step  in  Phoenicia,  at 
Jerusalem,  in  Persia,  in  Syria,  in 
Phrygia — architectural  works  in  the 
living  rock. 


DID  THE  PHOENICIANS  DISCOVER  AMERICA  ? 

No.  II. 


BY    THOMAS   CRAWFORD  JOHNSTON. 


VAST  walls,  in  which  the  courses 
are  of  colossal  size,  brought  from 
the  quarry  in  some  sort  ready- 
made,  so  that  the  characteristic  work 
of  a  building,  made  with  care,  was 
that  ' '  no  sound  of  hammer  or  saw  was 
heard  during  its  erection  (i  Kings  iv 
and  vii)  —  such  was  the  essential 
character  of  Phoenician  monuments." 
The  time  consumed  in  the  building 
of  the  temple,  we  learn  from  the 
6th  chapter  and  38th  verse,  was  seven 
years  ;  and  from  the  yth  chapter  and 
ist  verse,  we  learn  that  thirteen  years 
were  occupied  in  the  erection  of  the 
palace  at  Lebanon,  while  from  the 
loth  chapter  and  2ist  verse,  we 
gather  some  information  that  seems 
almost  more  wonderful  than  the  erec- 
tion of  the  temple  and  palace,  namely, 
that  while  this  enormous  drain  was 
still  affecting  the  resources  of  the 
people,  "  all  the  vessels  of  the  house 
of  the  forest  of  Lebanon  wrere  of  pure 
gold ;  none  were  of  silver:  it  was 
nothing  accounted  of  in  the  days  of 
Solomon."  While  in  the  2jih  verse, 
we  read  that,  during  this  period, 
Solomon  made  silver  to  be  in  Jerusalem 
as  stones  ;  and  the  writer,  as  if  appre- 
ciating the  incongruity  of  the  facts 
related,  offers  in  the  22d  verse  what  is 
intended  to  be  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion, namely,  '  'For  the  king  had  at  sea 
a  navy  of  Tharshish  with  the  navy  of 
Hiram  :  once  in  three  years  came  the 
navy  of  Tharshish,  bringing  gold 
and  silver,  ivory,  and  apes  and  pea- 
cocks. ' ' 

For  a  considerable  time  prior  to  this, 
Phoenician  enterprise  had  opened  a 
way  by  land  across  the  larger  portion 
of  the  western  side  of  Asia,  which 
placed  them  in  communication  with 
the  -Assyrians,  the  Babylonians  and  the 


Persians.  The  course  of  this  traffic  is 
distinctly  traceable  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  Indus,  and  must,  being  over- 
land, have  been  an  unsatisfactory 
method  to  so  distinctly  a  maritime 
people  as  they  were  ;  for  there  is  no 
doubt  that  whatever  access  they  pos- 
sessed to  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Indian 
Ocean  for  naval  purposes  was  due  to 
the  favor  of  the  Egyptians.  Shortly 
before  this  date,  however,  Solomon, 
by  his  conquests  of  the  Edomites,  had 
come  into  possession  of  the  important 
seaport  of  Ezion-geber,  at  the  head  of 
the  Gulf  of  Elam,  on  the  Red  Sea,  and 
knowing  how  acceptable  such  a  place 
would  be  to  the  Phoenicians,  turned  it 
over  to  them  ;  and  it  must  have  been  a 
gift  of  no  inconsiderable  value,  since  it 
gave  them  access  to  a  new  port,  under 
their  own  control,  where  they  could 
build  such  ships  as  might  be  necessary 
for  the  conduct  of  their  business  in 
the  Indian  Ocean  and  Ceylon,  along 
the  shores  of  both  of  which  countries 
they  had  quite  a  large  number  of 
business  centers. 

In  retuni  for  the  opening  which 
they  thus  obtained  for  the  extension 
of  their  business  towards  the  east,  the 
Tyrians  conceded  to  the  Jews  a  par- 
ticipation in  the  trade,  which  they 
had  carried  on  for  so  long  a  time  with 
the  nations  in  that  direction;  and  to- 
wards its  fuller  development,  two  fleets 
were  formed,  to  which  each  of  the  na- 
tions contributed  both  ships  and  men. 

In  i  Kings  ix,  26,  we  read  :  "And 
king  Solomon  made  a  navy  of  ships 
in  Ezion-geber,  which  is  beside  Eloth, 
on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  the 
land  of  Edom.  And  Hiram  sent  in  the 
navy  his  servants,  shipmen  that  had 
knowledge  of  the  sea,  with  the  ser- 
vants of  Solomon.  And  they  came  to 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


21 


Ophir,  and  fetched  from  thence  gold, 
four  hundred  and  twenty  talents,  and 
brought  it  to  King  Solomon." 

The    only    difficulty    there    is,     in 
understanding    this     passage,    is  the 


Fig.  12 — Tablet  of  the  Cross  Palenque. 

mixture  of  the  Phoenician  navy  with 
the  ships  of  Tharshish,  but  this  diffi- 
culty will  disappear,  when  we  recol- 
lect that  vessels  of  that  build  were 
pre-eminently  suitable  for  making 
long  voyages  and  carrying  large 
freights,  which  would  be  necessary, 
since  it  is  expressly  stated  that  these 
voyages  were  so  extensive  as  to  occupy 
a  period  of  three  years  ;  and  the 
Phoenician  ships  of  that  time  were 
little  better  than  open  boats,  so  that 
by  dovetailing  these  facts,  we  arrive 
at  the  following  proposition  :  That 
in  connection  with  King  Hiram,  King 
Solomon  built  at  Ezion-geber  a  navy 


after  the  pattern  of  the  ships  of  Tharsh- 
ish, which  were  more  suitable  for 
carrying  large  freights  and  venturing 
on  long  voyages  than  the  Phoenician 
biremes  ;  and  officering  and  manning 
them  with  Phoenician  seamen, 
sent  them  to  or  by  the  land  of 
Ophir,  on  a  series  of  voyages 
which  occupied  a  period  of  three 
years  each. 

To  the  Jews,  all  the  land  lying 
in  the  direction  of  the  Indian 
Ocean,  on  the  east  side  of  Babel- 
mandeb,  went  by  that  name  ;  the 
term  was  as  comprehensive  as 
ours  is,  when  we  speak  of  travel- 
ing east  or  west.  We  know, 
however,  that  the  territory  in  the 
direction  of  the  Indian  Ocean 
was  more  familiar  to  the  Phoeni- 
cians than  to  any  other  nation 
of  that  time,  for  it  is  beyond 
question  that  their  chief  renown 
was  not  based  on  their  caravan, 
but  on  their  maritime  expedi- 
tions, and  that  the  lower  portions 
of  the  Indian  peninsula  were 
reached  like  Ceylon,  as  suggested 
by  M.  Ragozin,  in  his  masterly 
work,  on  Assyria,  ' '  in  large 
armed  vessels  of  the  same  build 
as  the  Tharshish  ships,"  which 
were  used  in  the  expeditions  to 
England. 

The  question  naturally  arises 
here,  Where  did  these  large 
armed  vessels  go,  since  the  period 
consumed  in  the  voyages  is  ex- 
pressly stated  as  three  years,  and  the 
freight  carried  on  the  return  voyages  was 
gold,  silver,  ivory,  apes  and  peacocks  ? 
It  is  only  natural  that  we  should 
find  considerable  difficulty  in  answer- 
ing this  question,  when  we  recollect 
that  the  vessels  were  manned  by 
Phoenicians,  who  were  accustomed  to 
preserve  with  great  secrecy  the  sea 
routes  over  which  they  traveled,  and 
the  destinations  for  which  they  set 
out,  lest  some  other  nation  trading  on 
their  enterprise  should  follow  and  sup- 
plant them,  as  the  Greeks  had 
supplanted  them  nearer  home.  To 
such  an  extent  was  this  precaution 


22 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


used,  that  a  story  has  been  preserved 
of  a  Phoenician  captain,  who,  while  on 
his  voyage  to  the  "Tin  Islands,"  as 
England  was  called,  finding  himself 
pursued  by  some  Roman  ships,  and 
being  unable  to  escape,  deliberately 
ran  his  vessel  ashore,  losing  vessel 
and  cargo,  besides  drowning  his  crew, 
so  that  he  might  not  be  questioned, 
and  the  route  found  out  —  a  deed 


ture.  The  cost  of  the  vessels,  the 
unique  nature  of  the  enterprise,  and 
the  importance  of  the  voyages,  drew 
into  that  charmed  circle  the  very  elite 
of  Phoenician  science  and  culture,  that 
class  of  men  who  have  passed  beyond 
the  merely  animal  tendency  of  life, 
and  rising  above  fog  and  miasma, 
live  in  an  atmosphere  mainly  intel- 
lectual— men  who  dominate  their 


Fig.  13 — Pyramid  of  the  Moon  and  Pathway  of  the  Dead. 


which  was  recorded  at  Tyre  as  one  of 
the  highest  patriotic  heroism. 

It  is  here  that  the  average  investi- 
gator has  come  to  a  standstill,  and  in 
consequence  of  this  that  so  many 
curious  answers  have  been  given  to 
the  question.  Where  were  the  gold 
mines  of  Ophir,  and  this  land  that 
yielded  to  Solomon  one  year  thirty 
million  dollars  and  another  twenty 
million,  and  what  evidence  have  we 
of  the  location  ? 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  only 
way  in  which  we  could  obtain  light 
on  this  enigma  was  by  following  the 
traces  of  Phoenician  influence  and  civ- 
ilization, and  this  the  more  so  when 
we  bear  in  mind  the  class  of  men  who 
officered  these  fleets,  some  account  of 
which  we  find  in  the  2yth  chapter  of 
Kzekiel.  This  was  no  rude, uneducated 
horde,  set  adrift  on  voyages  of  adven- 


surroundings,  and  in  touching  them, 
leave  an  indelible  trace  of  their  pres- 
ence and  influence  behind  them. 
"  The  inhabitants  of  Zidon  and  Arvad 
were  thy  mariners,  thy  wise  men  that 
were  in  thee,  O  Tyrus,  were  thy  pilots. ' ' 
(Ezekiel  27th  chapter,  8th  verse.) 

We  are  still,  however,  confronted 
by  many  difficulties,  for  though  the 
Phoenicians  invented  the  alphabet, 
and  possessed  a  literary  and  scientific 
knowledge  of  a  high  order,  they  seem 
to  have  turned  it  all  into  practical 
channels  ;  so  much  so,  indeed,  was  this 
the  case,  that  they  do  not  appear  to 
have  written  any  memorial  of  their 
extraordinary  career  as  a  nation,  or 
of  their  exploits  and  adventure  as 
merchantmen  and  pioneers,  although 
their  experiences  in  many  cases  must 
have  been  as  thrilling  as  they  were 
unique. 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


The  object  of  the  Phoenician  mer- 
chant was  wealth,  not  fame,  and  while 
possessing  that  unique  quality  of 
inflexibility  of  purpose  which  won  for 
them  in  their  own,  if  not  for  all  time, 
a  pre-eminent  position  among  nations 
they  seem  to  have  stopped  there  ;  for 
record  other  than  fragments,  we  have 
found  none. 

Their  enterprise  it  is  impossible  to 
overrate.  About  the  time  of  which 
we  write,  their  business  establishments 
were  spread  not  only  along  the  shores 


eastward,  for  apart  from  the  dangers 
that  beset  the  coast  line  of  Europe, 
and  the  tempestuous  Bay  of  Biscay, 
on  the  voyage  to  England,  the  Phoeni- 
cians from  the  most  ancient  times 
believed  that  the  pillars  of  Hercules — 
those  sentinel  gate  posts  of  the  Strait 
of  Gibraltar — marked  the  end  of  the 
world,  beyond  which  lay  the  mysteri- 
ous deep,  into  which  Baal  Melkarth, 
the  glorious  sun-god,  plunged  nightly, 
on  his  journey  to  the  east,  and  whither 
it  was  sacrilege  for  mortals  to  follow. 


Fig.  14 — Chart  of  Phoenician  Travel. 


of  the  Mediterranean,  from  Phoenicia 
to  the  Atlantic,  but  also  along  the 
entire  sea  route  from  Ezion-geber  and 
the  Red  Sea  to  Ceylon.  What  need 
was  there,  pray,  for  a  new  and  double 
fleet  to  pursue  this  course  ?  The  navi- 
gation of  the  seas  to  the  westward 
required  not  only  courage,  but  an 
abandon,  with  respect  to  religious 
prejudice,  that  it  is  hard  for  us  with 
the  larger  mental  liberty,  that  is  the 
birthright  of  Christianity,  to  realize  ; 
and  that  did  not  and  could  not  condi- 
tion the  navigation  of  the  ocean  to  the 


If  the  reader  will  now  take  up  the 
map  of  the  world,  he  will,  I  think, 
obtain  some  new  light  on  this  enigma. 
By  following  the  line,  from  the  head 
of  the  Red  Sea  down  to  the  Straits  of 
Babelmandeb,  and  from  that  to  the 
coast  of  India,  and  on  to  Ceylon,  he 
will  have  before  him  the  known  track 
of  Phoenician  commerce  ;  but  if  from 
Ceylon  he  will  continue  the  line  to 
Java  and  Sumatra,  and  from  thence  to 
Mulgrave  Island,  in  Torres  Strait,  pro- 
ceeding to  the  Caroline  Islands,  Tonga, 
Samoa,  Rappa,  in  the  Austral  group, 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


and  from  thence  to  Easter  Island,  con- 
necting therewith  the  coast  of  Amer- 
ica, at  Mexico  and  Peru,  he  will  have 
located  a  series  of  islands  and  points 
on  the  mainland,  which  contain 
remains  of  substructions  of  a  charac- 
ter identical  with  those  found  under 
the  remnants  of  Solomon's  Temple, 
and  marked  with  those  peculiarities 
described  by  M.  Renan,  which  he 
demonstrates  were  not  only  a  marked 
feature,  but  were  indeed  characteris- 
tically peculiar  to  Phoenician  archi- 
tecture. 

If  we  now  follow  the  northern  line, 
and  enter  Mexico  at  Yucatan,  we  are 
confronted  by  buildings  that  not  only 
contain  evidence  of  this  peculiar 
Phoenician  method,  in  the  size  and 
nature  of  the  substructions,  but  whose 
composite  decorations  leave  no  room 
for  doubt  as  to  their  origin.  Not  only 
do  we  find  strong  evidence  of  Greek, 
Egyptian  and  Assyrian  influence,  but 
also,  in  plainest  form,  the  Phoenician 
wall  previously  referred  to. 

What  nation  of  ancient  times  but 
that  of  Phoenicia  ever  was  permitted 
to  have  a  foothold  in  the  land  of  the 
Pharaohs,  of  a  nature  that  would 
influence  them  to  such  sympathy  with 
Egyptian  art  as  would  lead  them  in 
other  lands,  and  among  a  new  set  of 
surroundings  to  reproduce  it  ?  There 
was  none.  To  the  civilization  of  the 
period,  of  which  we  write,  Egypt  was 
as  completely  closed  as  China,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  One 
nation,  and  one  nation  only,  was  per- 
mitted to  possess  a  permanent  home 
in  its  boundaries,  and  that  one  because 
it  was  well  known  that  the  supremacy 
it  sought  was  mercantile,  and  not 
territorial,  in  consequence  of  which  it 
so  won  upon  the  Egyptians,  as  not 
only  to  be  permitted  to  establish  itself 
at  Memphis,  and  erect  a  temple  for 
the  worship  of  its  own  gods,  but  so 
completely  subordinating  Egyptian 
prejudice,  as  in  late  years  to  have 
some  portion  of  its  deities  added  to 
the  Egyptian  pantheon. 

The  Egyptians  never  were  seamen. 
How,  then,  do  we  find  so  strong  an 


Egyptian  influence  among  the  remains 
of  the  ancient  cities  of  the  New 
World  ?  The  explanation  is  a  simple 
one.  It  is  not  Egyptian,  but  Phoeni- 
cian art,  and  this  the  more  so  that  the 


Fig.  15— Aztec  Idol— Egyptian  Type. 

type  is  not  merely  Egyptian,  but  qviite 
as  strongly  Greek  and  Assyrian. 

It  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  fact  that 
the  Phoenicians  had  an  almost  uninter- 
rupted intercourse  with  the  Greeks, 
Persians,  Assyrians  and  Jews,  as  well 
as  the  Egyptians,  and  it  seems  that 
their  commercial  supremacy  and  the 
advantage  which  the  association  gave 
to  these  countries  was  the  means  of 
engendering  not  only  a  native  skill, 
but  also  a  versatility  and  range  of 
method  and  design  in  art,  as  well  as 
architecture,  that  was  not  obtained  by 
any  other  of  their  time. 

We  could  scarcely  expect  to  find 
much  similarity  between  Greek  and 
Egyptian  architecture  or  art.  The 
intercourse  between  these  nations  was 
much  too  casual  to  warrant  one  look- 
ing for  it,  but  it  would  not  be  unreas- 
onable to  expect  evidence  of  the  influ- 
ence of  both  of  these  countries  as  well  as 
of  the  others  previously  mentioned  in 
Phoenician  remains,  when  we  recol- 
lect that  the  workshops  and  merchants 
of  Phoenicia  made  it  their  peculiar 
business  to  cater  to  the  needs  of  all  of 
them  ;  and  curiously  enough,  the  art 
and  the  architecture  found  in  Mexico 
are  just  such  as  we  would  expect  to 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


find  produced  by  such  a  set  of  cir- 
cumstances, when  the  restrictions  of 
a  local  market  and  a  peculiar  need 
were  removed. 

In  the  architecture,  as  we  see  from 
these  photographs  after  M.  Desire 
Charnay,  the  buildings  are,  as  de- 
scribed by  M.  Renan,  of  pronouncedly 
Phoenician  origin,  and  the  decoration 
not  only  Egyptian,  but  Greek,  with 
an  unmistakable  trace  of  Assj-rian  and 
Persian,  while,  when  we  come  to  the 
art  of  the  Aztec,  we  find  that  the  mo- 
tive in  the  winged  vase  from  Mexico 
contained  in  the  figure,  is  no  other 
than  the  winged  disk  of  Egypt  and 
Phoenicia  (Fig.  17). 

We  shall,  however,  leave  this  aspect 
of  the  question,  by  simply  calling 
attention  to  the  pieces  of  mural  decor- 
ation which  speak  so  emphatically  for 
themselves,  in  the  light  of  the  fore- 
going, and  shall  pass  shortty  to  the 
religious  beliefs  of  the  Aztecs  and 
Phoenicians,  where  we  shall  meet  a 
series  of  not  only  corroborative,  but  of 
startlingly  corroborative  facts. 

Starting  originally  as  monotheists, 
the  Phoenicians,  in  process  of  time, 
clothed  each  of  the  attributes  of  the 
deity  with  a  distinct  personality, 
which  quickly  developed  into  Poly- 
theism, with  a  principal  god  and  a 
number  of  lesser  and  tributary  deities, 
who  were  supposed  to  act  under  his 
guidance,  and  subject  to  his  control  ; 
and  so  widespread  was  the  influence 
of  this  form  of  belief  emanating  from 
them,  that  it  became  not  only  the 
basis  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  super- 
stitions, but  in  various  modifications 
seems  to  have  overrun  the  face  of  the 
earth,  as  peopled  at  that  time.  In 
process  of  time,  however,  strange 
developments  were  produced  by  this 
mongrel  worship  and  the  decadence 
from  their  once  simple  and  pure  faith, 
so  that  the  original  conception  of  the 
deity  was  ultimately  buried  beneath  a 
mass  of  superstition,  that  in  time 
sapped  the  very  vitals  of  Phoenicia,  as 
a  nation. 

Having  once  embarked  in  poly- 
theism, the  Phoenicians  soon  imported 


into  their  system  new  and  strange 
ideas  of  the  deity.  Baal  became 
identified  with  the  sun,  and  Ashtoreth 
with  the  moon,  and  a  general  belief  that 
the  anger  of  the  gods  was  best  averted 
by  human  sacrifice  prevailed  ;  and  to 
such  an  extent  did  this  prevail,  that 
in  the  later  years  of  the  nation's  his- 
tory not  only  in  Phoenicia  proper,  but 
throughout  its  entire  colonial  system, 
there  was  an  established  practice  of 
offering  up  human  sacrifices,  especiall)- 
in  times  of  public  calamity,  which 
bore  the  most  terrible  aspects  in  par- 
ents sacrificing  their  children  to  Baal, 
under  the  presumption  that  being  the 
most  precious  possession  of  parents, 
they  were  the  offering  most  certain  to 
appease  the  wrath  of  the  supernal 
powers.  When  we  now  come  to  the 
Pacific,  we  find  the  traces  of  this  belief 
spread  from  shore  to  shore,  not  only 
in  exact  form  in  Samoa  and  Tahiti, 
but  sacrifice  by  mutilation  in  nearly 
ever}'  island  on  this  route  laid  down, 
and  as  might  be  expected  in  most 
pronounced  form,  where  the  largest 
traces  of  their  influence  and  civiliza- 
tion are  most  apparent. 

Among  the  early  inhabitants  of 
Mexico,  human  sacrifice  prevailed  to 
an  appalling  extent,  and,  curiously 
enough,  we  find  that  the  deity  at 
whose  shrine  this  usuall)-  took  place 
was  one  which,  while  going  under 
another  name,  corresponds  exactly 
with  the  Phoenician  Baal  or  Moloch, 
this  deity,  among  the  Aztecs,  being 
represented  by  an  image,  half-human, 
half-brute,  with  a  cavity  in  front ;  and 
when  we  turn  to  the  Chinchemecs,  we 
find  the  old  and  distinctly  Phoenician 
custom  of  an  open-air  worship  of  the 
sun  and  the  moon,  and  the  strange 
usage  of  presenting  to  the  sun  the 
bleeding  heart,  torn  from  the  victim 
before  throwing  it  with  the  rest  of  the 
carcass  at  the  feet  of  the  image  to  be 
consumed  with  fire,  while  as  many  as 
twenty  thousand  victims  were  offered 
some  years  as  a  propitiation  not  confined 
by  any  means  to  adults,  but  as  in  the 
more  degenerate  days  of  Phoenicia, 
including  children  of  both  sexes. 


•  '••  -    --      '   • 


rr,,, 


Us '  w$ 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


27 


Ivike  the  Samoans  and  Tahitians, 
the  Aztec's  idea  of  a  supreme  being 
was  that  he  was  independent,  abso- 
lute and  invisible  ;  so  much  so,  that 
none  of  these  peoples  ever  attempted 
to  represent  him  by  image.  Not 
only  did  the  Aztec,  like  the  Samoan 
and  Maori,  believe  in  the  existence 
of  the  soul  as  distinct  from  the  body, 
and  regard  it  as  immortal,  but  they 
located  the  entrance  to  the  other 
world  at  a  determined  point  to  the 


tion  of  the  early  Phoenician  pantheon — 
being  men  who  found  out  and  taught 
to  mankind  this  secret.  Not  fire  by 
drilling,  nor  fire  by  striking  stones, 
but  fire  produced  by  the  friction  of 
portions  of  the  branches  of  trees  ;  and 
on  the  line  of  this  migration  across 
the  Pacific,  not  only  in  Samoa,  Tahiti, 
and  Easter  Island,  but  in  Peru  and 
Mexico  the  plan  pursued  is  the  same, 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  it 
was  of  peculiarly  Phoenician  origin. 


"Pli!W  Wj^IiW  " 


fly    I    frii'  '-•„•  'JL^il ;  'UJg.rr'v'gTCT  : .,  _/  .-..•••      '  •       lj     ''g''7 


Fig.  16 — Mural  Decoration,  Palenque. 


westward,  a  circumstance  that  speaks 
volumes  for  their  origin,  and  which  finds 
an  interesting  correspondence,  not  only 
in  the  Samoan  Falealupo,  but  among 
the  Marquesans.  These,  from  time 
immemorial,  but  certainly  reaching  to 
a  date  within  historic  record,  fitted 
out  expeditions,  and  ventured  on  long 
voyages  in  search  of  the  Elysium,  which 
the  tradition  of  their  ancestors  reported 
lay  in  a  land  toward  the  setting  sun. 

Again,  we  find  a  correspondence  in 
the  Aztec  plan  of  making  fire.  Philo 
ascribes  to  the  Phoenicians  the  dis- 
covery of  the  means  of  producing  fire 
by  the  friction  of  two  pieces  of  dry 
wood,  Phos,  Phur  and  Phlox — a  por- 


But  why  attempt  to  continue  this 
argument  ?  I  have  in  my  possession 
still  some  twenty  points  of  striking 
similarity  between  the  Aztecs  and 
the  Phoenicians,  and  most  of  these  are 
of  a  nature  that  removes  them  out  of 
the  sphere  of  chance.  But  I  forbear, 
for  there  has  surely  been  enough  said 
to  convince  the  most  skeptical  as  to 
the  connection  between  the  Phoenician 
and  the  Aztec. 

In  conclusion  I  quote  some  short 
paragraphs  from  the  ' '  Encyclopedia 
Britannica's  "  article  on  "America" 
that  .seem  so  pertinent  to  the  whole  line 
of  this  research,  as  to  make  a  suitable 
setting  to  all  that  has  preceded. 


443064 


28 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


"Votan,  it  seems,  came  from  a  for- 
eign land,  and  found  the  whole  coun- 
try, from  Darien  to  California,  occu- 
pied by  a  barbarous  people.  Votan 
and  his  followers  arrived  in  large  ships, 
and  wore  long,  flowing  garments." 
According  to  one  document  by  Ordonez 
this  event  is  laid  a  thousand  years 
before  Christ. 

It  is  desirable  to  notice  that  this 
date  corresponds  exactly  with  the 
dates  given  in  the  Bible  narrative  of 
the  historic  voyages  of  Hiram  and 
Solomon,  and  the  building  of  the 
temple,  which  was  about  1000  B.  C. 
"  This  journey  to  America  from  their 
native  country  was  a  long  and  painful 
one  and  indicates  that  seas  and  lands 
intervened  between  them.  The  tradi- 
tion reports  it  to  be  in  the  far  East, 
and  that  the  first  comers  filled  seven 
ships." 

' '  Votan  made  four  voyages  to  his 
native  land,  and  on  one  of  these  voy- 
ages he  visited  the  dwelling  of  the 
thirteen  serpents. ' ' 

This  undoubtedly  refers  to  the  tem- 
ple in  the  ancient  City  of  Benares  on 
the  River  Ganges. 

This  City  of  Benares  is  one  of  the 
most  ancient  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
and  was  the  religious  center  of  India 
for  centuries  before  the  Christian  era, 
being  the  birthplace  of  Hindoo 
mythology.  Here  special  attention 
was  given  to  the  worship  of  the  gods 
incarnate  in  the  serpent  and  monkey. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Sherring,  in  his 
"Sacred  City  of  the  Hindoos  "  (1868) 
says : 

"  Twenty  -five  centuries  ago,  at 
least,  it  was  famous,  when  Babylon 
wras  struggling  with  Nineveh  for 
supremacy,  when  Tyre  was  planting 
her  colonies,  when  Athens  was  grow- 
ing in  strength,  before  Rome  had 
become  known,  or  Greece  had  con- 
tended with  Persia,  or  Cyrus  had 
added  luster  to  the  Persian  monarchy, 
or  Nebuchadnezzar  had  captured  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  inhabitants  had  been 
rarried  into  captivity,  she  had  already 
risen  to  greatness,  if  not  to  glory. 
Nay,  she  may  have  heard  of  the 


fame  of  Solomon,  and  sent  her 
ivory,  her  apes  and  her  peacocks  to 
adorn  his  palaces,  while  partly  with 
her  gold  she  may  have  overlaid  the 
Temple  of  the  Lord. ' ' 

All  of   which    receives   a    peculiar 
value  in  the  light  of  what  has  preceded, 


Fig.  17 — Aztec  Vase,  with  Winged  Disc  S\mbol. 

and  is  emphasized,  if  a  little  attention 
be  given  to  the  Aztec  Molloch,  where 
the  drapery  of  the  image  will  .be  found 
to  be  serpentine  in  form,  and  bearing 
the  symbolicybwr  hands  of  the  goddess 
Kali,  the  wife  of  Shira,  to  whom  the 
' '  Monkey  temple, ' '  at  Benares  was 
erected,  and  at  whose  shrine  daily 
sacrifices  of  human  victims  were 
offered,  up  to  a  comparatively  recent 
date,  when  the  English  Government 
interfered. 

' '  Votan  also  visited  the  ruins  of  an 
old  building  which  had  been  erected 
by  men  for  the  purpose  of  reaching 
heaven.  The  people  who  lived  in  its 
vicinity  told  him  it  was  the  place 
where  God  had  given  to  each  family 
its  particular  language." 


DID    THE    PHOEN'ICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


29 


We  have  no  difficulty  in  recognizing 
this  as  referring  to  the  ' '  Tower  of 
Babel,"  at  Borsippa,  a  suburb  of 
Babylon,  and  in  doing  so  the  chain 
becomes,  link  by  link,  more  complete  ; 
but  curiously  enough  the  case  does 
not  rest  even  here,  for  Humboldt  in 


nations  received  it  from  a  common 
source,  and  no  one  so  perfectly  fills 
all  the  necessary  conditions  of  the 
case  as  the  Phoenicians. 

If  anything  more  were  necessary 
to  a  complete  establishment  of  this 
theory,  we  find  it  in  another  interest - 


Fig.  18— Aztec  Molloch. 


describing  the  Aztec  cycle  of  fifty-two 
years,  gives  strong  reason  for  believing 
that  it  was  borrowed  from  an  ancient 
Zodiac  formed  of  twenty-seven  or 
twenty-eight  lunar  houses,  which  was 
made  use  of  from  the  remotest 
antiquity,  in  Tartary,  Thibet  and 
India,  which  divided  the  month  into 
four  weeks  of  five  days,  and  enable 
us  to  trace  a  distinct  connection  be- 
tween the  Mexican  and  the  Asiatic 
nations.  Of  course,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  believe  that  these  several 


ing  paragraph  from  the  same  source 
which  says  : 

' '  The  architectural  character  of  the 
oldest  towns  lend  some  support  to  the 
considerable  antiquity  claimed  for 
them . ' ' 

' '  The  ruins  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America  present  so  many  different 
architectural  styles,  that  it  seems  very 
probable  that  they  were  built  at  dif- 
ferent times,  and  by  different  peoples. 
Those  which  appear  to  be  oldest, 
and  which  are  most  uniform  in 


DID    THE    PHOENICIANS    DISCOVER    AMERICA? 


style  are,  the  substructures  in  Maya- 
pam." 

The  native  traditions  held  that 
Quetzalcoatl  traversed  the  peninsula, 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  and 
on  reaching  the  last  ocean,  sent  back 
his  companions  to  tell  the  Cholulans 
that  in  a  future  age  his  brothers, 
white  men  and  bearded  like  himself, 
would  land  there  from  the  sea, 
where  the  sun  rises,  and  come  to  rule 
the  country." 

To  this  I  append  a  note  of  the  gold 
and  silver  yield  of  Mexico,  in  support 
of  the  contention  that  this  was  the 
location  referred  to  in  Scripture. 


$70,000,000  $2,090,000,000  $2,160,000,000 

1537  to  1821. .  .^"14,000,000  ^"418,000,000  ^"432,000,000 

$50,000,000  $900,000,000  $950,000,000 

1821  to  1880. .  .^"10,000,000  ^"180,000,000  xri90i°°o»ooo 


^"24,OOO,OOO       ^"59^'Oooioo°       ,^r622,OCO,OOO 
$120,000,000     $2,990,000,000     $3,110,000,000 

SYNOPSIS. 

First. — We  find  a  correspondence 
between  the  architectural  remains  in 
Mexico  and  those  of  Europe  and  Asia. 


Second. — We  find  that  the  details  of 
this  art  are  not  a  distinct  type  but 
composite,  and  the  product  of  a  variety 
of  sources. 

Third. — We  segregate  this  com- 
posite art,  and  reduce  it  to  its  original 
sources. 

Fourth. — We  determine  the  nation, 
and  the  condition  under  which  the 
amalgamation  took  place. 

Fifth. — We  show  that  they  were 
the  only  people  capable  of  making 
this  journey  and  this  amalgamation. 

Sixth. — We  know  that  they  made 
such  journeys. 

Seventh. — We  show  a  motive  for 
these  journeys. 

Eighth. — We  trace  the  course  they 
pursued. 

Ninth. — We  determine  from  historic 
records  the  date  at  which  the  journey 
took  place. 

Tenth. — And  show  that  the  religious 
beliefs  of  both  were  identical,  and 
consequently  conclude  that  in  conse- 
quence of  this  and  the  other  matters 
referred  to,  the  Aztec  was  the  product 
of  Phoenician  adventure  and  civili- 
zation. 


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